#January2014

I say New Gods, yes! Joe Casey and a fucking squadron of Beast Mode artists are intent on relaunching a Jack Kirby classic for Dynamite Entertainment. I’ve never checked out the Kirby original, but jeepers is this endeavor stacked with talent. As Lenny Descartes says in Django The Slaver Slayer, “first I was eating pineapple, but now I’m excited.”

No sooner do I get my rocks off celebrating the release of a new issue of Butcher Baker: Righteous Maker does news arrive that the comic book has been canceled. It wasn’t just canceled all peacefully like, either. Son of a bitch has become the center of an imbroglio between the two creators.

Wednesday. The delicious oasis in the middle of the weekly grind. Deliver us from 9-5. Deliver us from Cubicles. Deliver us in the form of weekly sequential artwork. Laser beams. Righteous makers. Providing just enough escape to slog through the last two days. This here is Buy These F**king Comics!, the column where we share the various titles we’re excited for on a given week. This column is powered by audience interaction, so if you see my poor taste and me abstaining from mentioning a title, throw it into the ring. Sharing is caring.

Sweet merciful lord, bare pity on me. I am not worthy of all the hotness that Image comics continues to unfurl. I am not. However, with your blessing I will sweat all over them like the excited fanboy I am. New works from Fraction? Graham? And more?

[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

It’s not usually a struggle for me to pick my favorite comic of the week. More often than not, a single funnybook will stand out, whether because of an incredible story, moving visuals, or some other quality. But on more fortuitous weeks, I’ll be presented the wonderful dilemma of having multiple candidates in my stack o’ panels. This is one such week.

And since both contestants are so damn appealing, I’m going to give both of them the grand prize! Open the vault, Seymour, these two are both going to spend a fabulous week at Images & Words! See, isn’t it great when one’s success isn’t defined by some other sap’s failure?! Ta-dah! Pop the champagne and slap a stripper’s ass! Huzzah!

Baby, I don’t have time for foreplay tonight. So feel free to put down the bottle of champagne and NES controller. C’mon, hop right into the sack with me. It’s time to get frisky.

This here’s the Monday Morning Commute, the spot where I tell you what I’ll be doing this week. We’re all dealing with that pesky infirmity known as the work-world, and so a double-dose of entertainment is necessary. Administer as many times daily as possible. Let’s dance.

–-

Rockin’/Coloring Book EP – Glassjaw

I put off downloading Glassjaw’s latest effort for awhile, telling myself that they’d make it available for purchase. But they haven’t. In fact, the only way to snag a physical copy is to attend one of their shows, and unfortunately the Boston gig sold out before I got a ticket. So, promising myself that I’d give GJ money when they decide they want my money, I downloaded Coloring Book.

Some of the tunes have a real Latin vibe, with funky-ass claves and tamborines and shit. And then some of the songs absolutely crush. And, as though they knew exactly what I wanted, the band closes the album with Daytona White, a jazzier number complete with brushstrokin’ drums and Sunday-morning keyboards.

I got myself a stack of the fat ass funny books. ‘Stead of reading them, I have to blather to you interbeings about the shit that is dropping in the world of comics tomorrow, and I’ll be goddamned if that ain’t proof Leibniz didn’t know shit. Most perfect of all worlds? My fucking ass! Pizza gets you fat and your fucking colon kills you.

Bullshit.

This is the world of Variant Covers, a preview of the comic books coming out this week. Hit me with your pull-list.